General Politics

Tuesday Morning Links

February 22, 2011
By Rick Shaw

Two Libyan officers request asylum after refusing to bomb protestors. Without the military and police backing him, Gaddafi will be joining Mubarak. The last six days of the Libyan protests. “Civil War” is being used more and more to describe this. Labor faces a moment of truth in Wisconsin So far Walker isn’t flinching....

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Collective Bargaining Indeed

February 21, 2011
By Rick Shaw

Here’s a sure-fire way for the Union protestors in Wisconsin to lose; implement these demands; • No concessions • For a $15 national minimum wage or $5 an hour wage increase whichever is greater • For a massive program of infrastructure spending to create jobs • A 30- hour workweek with no cut in...

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The Wisconsin Protests

February 21, 2011
By Rick Shaw

This is why the protests in Wisconsin are significant: To an astonishing extent, the unions are the government in many locales. They elect officials and then sit down to bargain with them over their salaries and benefits. Since they are essentially bargaining with themselves, they generally make out quite nicely. It’s a corrupt and...

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The end of one welfare state and the advancement of another

February 18, 2011
By Rick Shaw

While UK is working to end their welfare state… We have a system where people too often are rewarded for doing the wrong thing, and those who strive to do the best by their families are penalised. It is a system so out of control that it houses unemployed people in some of the...

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The Decline of America

February 16, 2011
By Rick Shaw

This article on the recent purchase of the New York Stock Exchange is depressing.

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Book Review: Because It Is Wrong: Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror

January 8, 2011
By Rick Shaw

Because It Is Wrong: Torture, Privacy and Presidential Power in the Age of Terror Charles Fried and Gregory Fried 2010 W. W. Norton & Company ISBN-10: 0393069516 ISBN-13: 978-0393069518 Because It Is Wrong is an inquiry into the legitimacy of torture and the expectation of privacy in the age of terror (although I cringe...

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Stimulus Indeed: Highest Number Below Poverty Line In 50 Years

September 17, 2010
By Rick Shaw
Stimulus Indeed:  Highest Number Below Poverty Line In 50 Years

About 44 million Americans - one in seven - lived last year in homes in which the income was below the poverty level, which is about $22,000 for a family of four. That is the largest number of people since the census began tracking poverty 51 years ago.

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BP Starts To Name Names

September 9, 2010
By Rick Shaw

As I said previously, there is plenty of blame to go around in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. BP is now getting around to naming names and so far I was on the money, though they fail to mention lax government oversight, but then again, why would they burn that bridge? From FastCompany.com: BP’s...

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Google Goes Creepy

September 8, 2010
By Rick Shaw

This is the downside of hanging everything out there--Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress; it all becomes incriminating information.

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Quick Notes On WikiLeaks

August 31, 2010
By Rick Shaw

After some exchange with a couple of people on Twitter regarding the WikiLeaks subject, I decide to post some quick, personal notes here, where I’m not limited to 140 characters of text, though I still aim for brevity. To give you some context on what shapes my opinion (in no specific order and obviously...

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